make me wish I was blind, Avester.”
“He had cocker spaniels,” Avery said. “Back home. Those girls are like his, you know, there’s a word.”
“Substitute,” Luke said.
“Right, that.”
“I don’t know how Harry was with his dogs,” Nicky said to Luke at lunch later that day, “but those little girls pretty much run him. It’s like someone gave them a new doll. One with red hair and a big gut. Look at that.”
The twins were sitting on either side of Harry and feeding him bites of meatloaf from their plates.
“I think it’s sort of cute,” Kalisha said.
Nicky smiled at her—the one that lit up his whole face (which today included a black eye some staff member had gifted him with). “You would, Sha.”
She smiled back, and Luke felt a twinge of jealousy. Pretty stupid, under the circumstances . . . yet there it was.
25
The following day, Priscilla and Hadad escorted Luke down to the previously unvisited E-Level. There he was hooked up to an IV that Priscilla said would relax him a little. What it did was knock him cold. When he awoke, shivering and naked, his abdomen, right leg, and right side had been bandaged. Another doctor—RICHARDSON, according to the nametag on her white coat—was leaning over him. “How do you feel, Luke?”
“What did you do to me?” He tried to scream this but could only manage a choked growl. They had put something down his throat, as well. Probably some kind of breathing tube. Belatedly, he cupped his hands over his crotch.
“Just took a few samples.” Dr. Richardson whipped off her paisley surgical cap, releasing a flood of dark hair. “We didn’t take out one of your kidneys to sell on the black market, if that’s what you’re worried about. You’ll have a little pain, especially between your ribs, but it will pass. In the meantime, take these.” She handed him an unmarked brown bottle with a few pills inside.
She left. Zeke came in with his clothes. “Dress when you feel like you can do it without falling down.” Zeke, always considerate, dropped the clothes on the floor.
Eventually Luke was able to pick them up and dress. Priscilla—this time with Gladys—escorted him back to the residence level. It had been daylight when they took him down, but it was dark now. Maybe late at night, he couldn’t tell, his time sense was totally fucked.
“Can you walk down to your room by yourself?” Gladys asked. No big smile; maybe it didn’t work the night shift.
“Yeah.”
“Then go on. Take one of those pills. They’re Oxycontin. They work for the pain, and they also make you feel good. A bonus. You’ll be fine in the morning.”
He walked down the hall, reached for the doorknob of his room, then stopped. Someone was crying. The sound came from the vicinity of that stupid JUST ANOTHER DAY IN PARADISE poster, which meant it was probably coming from Kalisha’s room. He debated for a moment, not wanting to know what the crying was about, definitely not feeling up to comforting anyone. Still, it was her, so he went down and knocked softly on the door. There was no answer, so he turned the knob and poked his head in. “Kalisha?”
She was lying on her back with one hand over her eyes. “Go away, Luke. I don’t want you to see me like this.”
He almost did as she asked, but it wasn’t what she wanted. Instead of leaving, he went in and sat down beside her. “What’s wrong?”
But he knew that, too. Just not the details.
26
The kids had been outside in the playground—all of them except Luke, who was down on E-Level, lying unconscious while Dr. Richardson cored out her samples. Two men emerged from the lounge. They were in red scrubs rather than the pink and blue ones the Front Half caretakers and techs wore, and there were no nametags on their shirts. The three old-timers—Kalisha, Nicky, and George—knew what that meant.
“I was sure they were coming for me,” Kalisha told Luke. “I’ve been here the longest, and I haven’t had any tests for at least ten days, even though I’m over the chicken pox. I haven’t even had bloodwork, and you know how those fucking vampires like to take blood. But it was Nicky they came for. Nicky!”
The break in her voice as she said this made Luke sad, because he was pretty crazy about Kalisha, but it didn’t surprise him. Helen turned to him like a compass needle pointing to magnetic north whenever he came